Sashes and Towers and Clowns, Oh My!

Talk about being clueless. Here is how I arrived at my bridal shower:

Yes, that's a blindfold and a veil! Fortunately, I do not have any injury stories to share! I ridiculously cute and sweet escort was successful in driving me to the location without me getting carsick, escorting me across the parking lot without getting hit by any cars, walked me up stairs without me stubbing a toe or tripping, and navigated me successfully through a busy delicious smelling place.

My future-husband and escort

Since the location had been kept top secret and couldn't smell anything discernible (it smelled delicious!), I was stumped when I was told to guess where we were. To be fair, I probably could have guessed in maybe three to five tries, but I was so nervous (I don't do well as the center of attention) I couldn't think straight. In my head, I was rattling off pizza places that are in NY and local cupcake bakeries, all of which I knew weren't correct. After a few stumbling attempts to not be a party pooper, my blindfold was removed to reveal that I was at one of my favorite sweet spots in Charlotte - Amelie's French Bakery in NoDa!

If you don't know about Amelie's, let me paint you a picture...or rather, show you some pictures of their decor.

Reminds me of places we used to hang out in while in college in Asheville. Good times.

With the location finally revealed, my blindfold became a sash and the party started. Side story on the Bride-to-Be sash - it was worn by brideswoman Vanessa at her bachelorette party! Now it is in my possession until it is time to pass it on to the next special lady to get married.

Ms. Sharon looking on behind me

So what, pray-tell would a constitute a "party" in bride-to-be-Crystal-land? Well, there would be amazing people...

Brideswoman Vanessa and me

Brideswoman Noel and Woman of Honor Sarah

Sadly, I don't have too many great photos of the rest of the guests. Trust me, it was a group of awesome women (I love you guys!).

...fun decor....

Mismatched plate settings!

The plates were so pretty! Love that they were mismatched.

Yes, these are personalized Hershey's fun sized candies!

...we'll throw in some gifts since there are a LOT of photos of the table o'treasure...

Booty

 ...tasty tasty treats....

Plate of goodies! And yes, they were delic-wait for it-ous!

Yummy Yummy Yummy, I have mousse in my tummy

...and clowns?

Yes....clowns.

So yes...clowns...
Let's start at the beginning. There is one bathroom for customers to use. This, not surprisingly, causes lines. So I was holding up the next stage of the party (opening gifts) while I waited to catch a bathroom opportunity. This is where the Amelie's staff is awesome - they let me use their staff bathroom so we could move things along! Their office rocks, by the way. They have a large portion of their office dedicated to play areas for their young kids! Very cool. Anyway, I'm coming back from the office bathroom when Janice runs up and grabs my hand and starts dragging me past the side room where the shower was taking place. It takes a few seconds for me to compute that she's telling me that there is a purple clown and I need to get a picture with him. As I'm computing this, she remembers that
I
Hate
Clowns.
By the time we reach the clown, who is talking with Vanessa, Janice asks if I'm ok with this. I take one look at the clown and respond "Yup!"
Confused?

Clowns I Hate:

Never trust these guys!

Which is why I enjoy this movie:

Clowns I Don't Mind:

Who doesn't love the Joker?

Goth Clowns!

So what's the difference? Circus clowns always look so happy, but a few straws short of a bale happy. They always make me nervous. Never trust a happy clown. This was my kind of clown, though, and not just because he worked the black and purple color scheme. He was the right kind of evil/scary clown. He looked evil enough to where it didn't feel like he was hiding his motives, but not so evil it went into "The Hills Have Eyes" crazy. So while I was cracking up at the fact that there was a clown at my bridal shower, I loved that of all the popular places in all the world, he walked into this one! 

So what was the crazy purple clown doing at a french bakery if he wasn't hired for your shower, I hear you asking. Well, apparently, there's a local group that does an Evil Clown Bar Crawl around town, and this was the second annual crawl. They went around town that day collecting school supplies for kids! How cool is that? After he obliged for the photo, we saw Mr. Evil Purple Clown walk past the windows of the side room a few times during the shower, so almost everyone got to see him. He was a hit of the party!

So thank you, awesome purple evil clown. You were a very unexpected but awesome surprise!

Speaking of surprises...

stay tuned...

Cake Poll

Hello, readers. It's been a long time since we had a poll post. This one is for those who have planned events that have already taken place.

Do you have any wisdom to impart on deciding on details about the (wedding) cake? Is it wiser to get just flavors you like or to mostly cater to the palettes of your guests? Did you end up with a lot of leftovers? How many people could your cake serve vs. the number of people showed up?

"You're wet." "Yes, It's Raining."

This bride-to-be has been showered!

This past weekend, a lovely group of ladies gathered at one of my favorite local bakeries to throw me a (mostly) surprise bridal shower. The only information I had was the date and the time I needed to be ready by.

Before getting into the shower, though, let me start with the day before; the day Charlotte got six inches of rain in three hours! The downpour wouldn't have been much of an issue for most as it occurred mostly mid-day, before most would be driving into town. (Luckily, Douglas didn't have to drive in that rain to get here!) However, one we knew who would be arriving Friday evening wasn't coming by car, but by train. Brideswoman Vanessa enjoys taking the train and almost never comes away from a trip without a story. This trip, she had a story. The train wasn't leaving Raleigh! Why?

Charlotte's Amtrak Station Under Water

Charlotte's Amtrak station is known to flood, but this was ridiculous. An hour or so later, her train was ready to leave Raleigh and give the trip to Charlotte a shot. By the time we showed up to pick her up, the parking lot had drained but the station building was off-limits (lights were off) and the tunnel where the riders would leave the platform from was flooded, so Vanessa got to trek across gravel to leave, with the other passengers, out of the service entrance. It took a while, but we got her! She then informed us that one of the cars in the parking lot was her conductor's. Ouch!

We finally got Vanessa back to our place and hung out for a few hours. Then, around midnight, while we were discussing some logistics for wedding stuff the girls were helping me out with, we get a knock at the door. SURPRISE!

Brideswoman Noel is at my door!!! This little lady had paid me a surprise visit once before in DC, but that was with Vanessa as a co-conspirator. This time, Vanessa was also surprised! We didn't know if Noel was going to be able to come in at all, so for her to show up was that much more awesome!

With Best Man #1, Brideswoman #1, Brideswoman #2, and Future Husband under the same roof, it was time to pack it in for a few hours of sleep. Putting my head down and wondering what the next day would hold, this image never crossed my mind: